COLLECTING the mail every day is a tedious task for most people, but Barry
Sambrooks quite enjoys his daily ritual.
While others are wandering out to
their front yard letterboxes to retrieve their bills, letters and Target
brochures, Mr Sambrooks straps his horse onto a homemade cart and jaunts off
down the Murray Valley Highway to the post office.
The Vinifera resident
stores his mail in a leather pouch in front of the seat while he takes the reins
to steer Tom, a six-year-old gelding, on the six to eight kilometre round trip.
The ritual is highly beneficial for both parties; Tom is able to stretch his
legs and Barry gets to exercise his love of the great outdoors.
Born and
raised in Kerang, Mr Sambrooks left Kerang Secondary School at the age of 14,
determined to find a job.
He scored an apprenticeship with the local bakery
and entered a world of early risers, starting work at 2am every morning to
finish around midday, six days a week.
“I really enjoyed it”, he
says.
“We made [countless] loaves of bread and pies for the footy rush on
weekends, all by hand.
“It’s funny, I could bake 100 loaves but I can’t bake
one or two.”
After 12 years he decided to call it quits, and in search of a
sea change he packed up and took his family to Queensland on a working holiday.
They lived in a caravan and worked their way up the coast for 15 months,
reaching as far as Cairns before turning back.
On his return to Kerang, Mr
Sambrooks took up a position as a water distribution officer with Goulburn
Murray Water (G-MW).
For more of this story, see Wednesday’s Guardian (June 19).
